A is for Awesome: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World by Eva Chen, illustrated by Derek Desierto

Chen, E., & Desierto, D. (2019). A is for awesome: 23 iconic women who changed the world. Feiwel and Friends. 

    At first glance, I love the concept of this book. An A to Z board book on incredible women throughout history? Sign me up! I read this book once for pleasure, and then again with a more critical eye. Personally, I enjoyed this introduction to world changing women. For the most part, the women the author chose for the book were inspiring role models for young women and girls everywhere. However, considering this book was aimed at babies, it seems to me that some of the words were too advanced to engage and hold a young reader’s attention. Words like modernist, formidable, tempestuous, and philanthropist appear on almost every page of this board book aimed at babies and very young toddlers, thereby essentially excluding the child from the reading experience. This appears to be a board book written for the adult, rather than the child in the reading pair. 

There are also quotes on each page from each iconic woman. These quotes, while inspiring, may have better served an older audience. Even an older child, such as a middle school student, likely would have received more of a benefit from this book than babies do, but they are unlikely to engage with this book due to the “childish” format. The positive of the text is that the difficult words can serve to expand the child’s vocabulary. An older toddler may ask their parents what words like “intrepid” means, thereby giving the parent an opportunity to expand their child’s vocabulary. That being said, it may have served the book better if the difficult words were few and far between – as the book is, there’s one on nearly every page. 

While the writing of this board book left the child out of the reading experience, the illustrations were almost as strong as the writing was weak. The book provides the reader with bright, colorful illustrations of this incredible and diverse group of women, and the visible though not tangible texture effect for each illustrations’ hair is a particularly appealing aspect for children. Each illustration expresses a different emotion as well, leaving Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a serious, stern expression, Emiline Pankhurst outraged, Beyonce Knowles confident, and Oprah Winfrey excited. I can see babies learning from these varying expressions and trying to imitate them. 

The last page covers X, Y, and Z, for “Extraordinary You, and the Zillions of Brilliant, Brave Adventure You Will Have.” The last page is accompanied by a mirror on the two page spread. While this may seem like a cop out to avoid coming up with women for X, Y, and Z, I believe this is actually the most engaging page of the whole book. There is a wealth of research to suggest that babies like mirrors. The sight of “another” baby can be quite exciting to them. 

Overall, this book’s mismatched format and content make for an intriguing book for adults, but a less than engaging book for young children, who may be discouraged by its content.